RE: Will Jesus return on a white horse?
January 5, 2013 at 8:49 pm
(This post was last modified: January 5, 2013 at 8:55 pm by RichardP.)
(January 5, 2013 at 2:12 pm)Undeceived Wrote:(January 5, 2013 at 9:05 am)RichardP Wrote: I don't reconcile them. I don't believe that Jesus could magically "forgive" anybody of their sins.So you accept the part(s) where Jesus seems to teach the commandments and reject the countless more times where he teaches belief because they seem "absurd" to you? Your Jesus is a theoretical one. Mine is the biblical one. It's no wonder we don't see eye to eye. Tell me, what makes God's moral judgment absurd in your eyes? You confessed the virtues of not stealing, not committing adultery, honoring parents and so on. God decreed a law that anyone breaking a commandment (doing evil) would deserve death. If you were in a position where you deserved death, would you accept God's forgiveness?
Would I play make believe that an imaginary God was going to forgive me? I don't know. I am quite sure that it wouldn't make any difference. I don't think that God could judge me any more than Thor, or Zeus, or Joseph Smith. Now if you define God abstractly as goodness, happiness, joy, pleasure, love -- then I might have to agree that "God" exists.
Incidentally the Bible being the "Bible" there are a number of places in the Old Testament where they say there is no life after death. I am sure that you can counter that with others that argue that there is life after death however -- for what it is worth -- here they are:
(This is from a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet. Surprisingly they don't believe in life after death. But they do believe in resurrection of the elect..."
WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES: At death, humans cease to exist. "The dead are conscious of nothing at all." states Ecclesiastes 9:5. "Since the dead cannot know, feel, or experience anything, they cannot harm -- or help -- the living.." -- Psalm 146: 3-4
See also Genesis 3:19 and Ecclesiastes 9:6-10